Guest Column: Cuts to higher education will hurt Missouri’s economy

For the past two years, higher education in Missouri earned a grade point average just above a D. If we were graduates searching for a job, employers wouldn’t look at us twice.

Every two years the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education issues a report card for states and the nation on criteria essential to our future security:  making college affordable, preparing high school students for college, how many attend and earn a college degree and how well the graduates put their college educations to use in society.

On all the criteria, except affordability, Missouri was resoundingly average. Although there are pockets of excellence throughout the state, we must improve if Missouri’s diverse and expansive higher education system is to support the workforce needs of the future.

Missouri, along with all other states, except California, flunked affordability. Knowing that we have lots of company doesn’t provide much solace for the fact that we are failing to provide a college education to students with limited resources.

The issue of college affordability is a national priority as elected officials develop greater understanding of the public benefits that accrue to nations and states that produce educated, globally competitive workers.

Unless affordability is addressed, states like Missouri, and the nation as a whole will be racing in the wrong direction-toward the bottom of college attainment rather than back to the top.

Since the late 1990s, the share of a Missouri family’s income needed to pay for college at public four-year institutions has increased from 18 percent to 29 percent, even after financial aid. Missouri families in the lowest income bracket-those earning just over $17,000-must pay 41 percent of their income to attend a four-year public college or university. Sixty-five percent of Missouri students graduate with student debt, compared to 59 percent nationally, and the average amount of debt is almost $19,000.

The disparity in access to higher education between rich and poor, majority and minority, leads to lost personal income and a stagnant tax base. Recently, Missouri has taken positive steps by significantly increasing need-based scholarships, but much more outreach is necessary to prepare and enroll low income students.

It’s no secret that Missouri ranks 47th in the nation in per capita support for higher education, spending just $159 per student compared to our neighbors in Kansas ($297), Illinois ($227) and Arkansas ($303).

This ranking results from the state’s budget shortfall in fiscal years 2001-2002, when the state budget was balanced on the back of higher education institutions, students and their families. The past two years have seen modest increases in state funding, but public colleges and institutions have yet to receive state support at pre-2002 levels. Enrollment, however, has grown from fewer than 150,000 students to more than 165,000.

To be sure, colleges and universities must do their part to maximize efficiency. However, while institutions strive to contain costs, the entire system must also think creatively about new structural arrangements to meet citizens’ demands for education and training.

The shift from state support to family support has profound implications for higher education, as well as our state and nation. After World War II, the GI Bill paid for thousands of returning soldiers to attend college, obtain good jobs and live more comfortably than their parents ever dreamed. Their children, the baby boom generation, benefited from their parents’ affluence and education.

Now, decreasing public support affects the ability of the middle class to pay for college and threatens to wipe out any hope those at the bottom of the economic ladder may have for a better life. Meanwhile, baby boomers are retiring just when the need for an educated workforce is greater than ever.

Currently,  22 of the 30 fastest growing career fields require some postsecondary education. By 2020, the United States is expected to face a shortage of 14 million workers with college-level skills. The need for a well-supported, accessible higher education system is greater than ever, yet the U.S. now lags behind nine other industrialized nations in the number of young adults enrolled in college.

Projected declines in state revenue have prompted the General Assembly to ask state agencies and public higher education institutions to describe the impact of cuts of 15, 20 and 25 percent in state support. Institutions may have to make difficult decisions to cut programs and services, and to raise tuition. In either scenario, students would feel the greatest pain.

Such short-term fixes will have a serious, long-term impact on Missouri’s economy. More students are pursuing postsecondary education all across the state, and as the economy continues to struggle, more and more workers turn to public higher education for new knowledge and skills.

If Missouri is to turn around the downward spiral in quality and cost, it will take all of us working together. We must restore higher education to its place of prominence as a public good, maximize efficiency without sacrificing quality, provide adequate support to institutions and open college doors to students who otherwise could not afford to attend.

Robert B. Stein
Robert Stein, Missouri commissioner of higher education, has more than 40 years experience addressing issues in higher education, including 21 at the Missouri Department of Hiigher Education.